HOUSE FLIES, CENTIPEDES. AND OTHER INSECTS. 



53 



a harbinger of good and indicative of cheerfulness and plenty, or to 

 give rise to melancholy and to betoken misfortune. The former idea 



prevails, however, and Gowper expresses the common belief that the — 



Sounds inharmonious in themselves and harsh, 



Yet heard in scenes where peace forever reigns, 

 And only there, please highly for their sake. 



The common name ••cricket" is descriptive of its cheerful, chirping 

 note, and is derived from the imitative French popular name •• cricri" 

 (from eriquer . Similar descriptive names are applied to it in many 

 foreign tongues. 



The introduction of the domestic cricket of Europe into America 

 was probably at a very early date, at least in portions of the country. 

 Kalm, a careful and scientific observer, writing- in 17I!> of this insect, 

 says that they are •• abundant in Canada, 

 especially in the country, where these dis- 

 agreeable guests lodge in the chimneys: 

 nor are they uncommon in the towns. 

 They stay here both summer and winter, 

 and frequently cut clothes in pieces for 

 pastime.*' The year before, however, he 

 writes that he had not met with them in 

 any of the houses in Pennsylvania or 

 Xew Jersey. 1 



The occurrence of this insect in Canada 

 in comparative abundance has since been 

 confirmed by Provancher and Caulfield, 

 and in various Eastern towns in the 

 United States by Uhler, Glover, and others. 

 It has also been observed in vari< >us States 



westward to and beyond the Mississippi. It does not seem to be at 

 all common on this continent, however, except in Canada, and the more 

 familiar insect to most Americans is one or other of our brownish-black 

 field crickets, which often enter houses and accommodate themselves 

 to domesticity almost as completely as the true European hearth 

 cricket. Our native crickets are more robust and of larger size, but 

 present the same tendency of location and food habits as their Euro- 

 pean relatives. A species Gryllus assimilis Fab.) often found in 

 houses in Washington is represented in tig. 21. The following- account 

 of the imported domestic cricket applies in the main also to any of our 

 native species which are acquiring domesticity. Our species are. how- 

 ever, not known to breed in houses, although it is nor at all improb- 

 able that this is now occasionally true of some of them. 



The house cricket belongs to the jumping or saltatorial family of the 

 Orthoptera. being elosely allied to the common field crickets and the 

 curious mole cricket. The normal mode of progression is by a sera- of 



Fig. 20. — Gryttus domestieus: a. male; 

 l>. female — natural .>ize (original). 



Travels, Vol. 1. p. 318; il. p. 



